The present disclosure relates to an operation apparatus that is operated by a user and is capable of providing a sense of touch in accordance with an operation of the user.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 7-219704 discloses a virtual world expression device such as a television game machine or a virtual reality device that can express a virtual world more realistically. This device is provided with a handle part to be grasped and operated by a player. To a surface of the handle part, a pad for grasp that is formed of rubber or the like is fixed. At positions of the pad that correspond to five fingers of one hand of a human, five electromagnetic solenoids are arranged. To the inside of each electromagnetic solenoid, a pressure sensor that detects a pressure generated by a movement of a rod that expands and contracts is provided, and when the player grasps the pad, the holding force is detected by the pressure sensors. Thus, the player can make some action to the virtual world.
The virtual world expression device drives the electromagnetic solenoids on the basis of detection signals by the pressure sensors so as to feed back information on a character represented on a display of the virtual world expression device to the player. The player recognizes that information by a sense of touch (see, for example, paragraphs [0012], [0015], and [0021], FIGS. 3 and 7, and the like of the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 7-219704).
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-267174 discloses a ball-type touch device that includes a pressure sensor that detects a pressure at which a person who operates the device grasps the device, and a linear actuator that causes the surface of a ball to be deformed in accordance with the pressure (see, for example, paragraphs [0016], [0020], and [0029], FIG. 1, and the like of the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-267174). This ball-type touch device is used as a device for remote-controlling a robot arm, for example.